Thursday, May 31, 2012

I have the great pleasure to announce that I will be one of the artists showing at currents 2012. Please read on...

currents 2012,Santa Fe's annual citywide event, will
feature the latest developments in the New Media Arts by over 80 artists from
throughout the United States and around the world.

Among installations made of light, the virtual world of Second Life will also be shown at the new media festival. Four artists from our virtual world (Bryn Oh, Artistide Despres, Tyrehl Byk, and yours truly Haveit Neox)
will exhibit on the sims they have developed by way of a computer monitor set up at
the installation in Santa Fe. Plans are to project this onto a ten foot wall. Wish I could travel there to see SL on such a large scale!

In December, I was invited to participate in currents 2012
after one of the curators saw my exhibit called Second Libations. I have
preserved some of the elements from Libations, but furthered it into quite
another concept for the upcoming festival, like a modern civilization resting upon the ruins of its past.

My contribution is called “Stirring the Dreams” a full sim installation on the sim of Sparquerry. Tomorrow is June 1, which gives me 22 days to finish up before
opening day. This is the exciting part of the installation process where I begin
to see a coherency in the works as I fill the spaces. I will be updating this page as new developments are readied.

The story:

STIRRING THE DREAMS

Our nights are filled with dreams - good
and bad ones. But a nightmare that persists over months or years may leave a
dreamer feeling helpless to escape it. Haunting dreams set the stage for this
exhibit at the Sparquerry sim, in the virtual world of Second Life. The
scenario takes place in a factory-like structure and I try to match the somber
atmosphere of nocturnal disturbances in this artwork. Second Life, this vast 3D
computer world where I’ve built my own little corner, is a valuable tool for
constructing a three dimensional environment. In such a format, I stir in a new
element of light and hope. Now with an equatorial jungle outside the factory
walls, and coiffed with a perched ship amid its canopy, the visitor may travel
beyond the original dark space into more optimistic outcomes. Experiences and
the people we encounter have an influence on our dreams. Therefore, inside the
front entrance of the factory, I have installed some poetic works written by my
friends in Second Life. Arranged like a Cabinet of Curiosities, they are a
collection of pieces whose creators weave a common path, thus keeping my own
display company. As a dreamscape is not easily navigated, the visitor may also
take a little time before finding the verdant world just outside.

Surfacing above the nightmares, the visitor emerges into a jungle. The factory temple is to the right, and the ship perched among the trees is to the left in the above photo.

The drowned city

Court of Libations

The photo above is a detail from a green dream. It was shot using sunset wind setting.

This section of my installation is near the landing point. From this

area under the sea, visitors will climb up to land then onto a stairway

leading to the sky... if they can find it!

CURRENTS 2012 opens June 22, 2012. The schedule of events
and full list of artists are listed on the currents website. Please visit them HERE.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Over the past couple of months, when I have spare time, I
have been developing this abstracted language of prims for my city of
ACCentaury. Look at the banner that tops my blog page, and you see its
precursor. That graphic prim language used shapes in a concrete fashion. In
the current system I’m inventing, you won’t actually see any prims, but you
will know they are there! It will become clear as you read this entry.

My urban
center employs prims not only for building structures, but three among their
shapes also serve as an armature for the language. They are the SPHERE, the
PYRAMID, and the TORUS. I chose each shape for its unique features. A sphere
has no specific beginning or end, as it is perfect roundness. It rolls, spins,
turns. The pyramid is composed of planes and points, giving angularity
and sharp edges. It sits with stability. The torus weaves in and out of
itself like a circulatory system, a pathway ripe to be journeyed within.

I apply these three building blocks into the English
language. But how is that done? The first order of business is to determine
which qualities of the shapes listed above apply to the sentence you wish to
translate. When the shapes are chosen and set in position to support your sentence,
it is called an armature. Here’s an example, first shown in conventional
English:

1.The sim crashed when the count exceeded 45
avatar visitors.

In this sentence, I might represent the armature as a sphere
atop a pyramid. The sphere cannot balance on such a small point at the top of
the pyramid, and would roll off. (This assumes of course, that the prims are
always physical, in deference to gravity in the Real World). This instability of how one
prim interacts with another shows an abstract correlation to the sim which
cannot balance a count of 45 or more avatars. At this point, I will insert the
first principle of Prim Armature: Prims always come in pairs. They show an
interaction. (The only time you don’t use more than one prim is when the pair
consists of the same prim, such as two spheres, two tori, or two pyramids. In this
case, it’s considered that the single prim is doubled. This language economy
saves space and time). Principle two, is that prim armatures are only used when
they have cause to be ‘on stage’. A paragraph is usually delineated by the
development of a theme, and so the frequency of using the prim armature approximates
this ratio, and in so doing, usually only needs to center on the one basic theme
for all the sentences in each paragraph. In other words, an armature is
typically only used once per paragraph.

ATTRIBUTES of the three prims.

Inserting a prim armature into a given sentence requires
that the writer or speaker assesses the nature of the sentence. Is the feeling
one of balance, growth, instability, nurturing, etc? Below are the prims with a
brief sampling of their possible attributes. Remember, when you combine them
into pairs, they will further hone the abstract quality you wish to convey.

SPHERE: round,
planet, roll, wheels, turn, etc.

PYRAMID: point, blade, slice, stand, cut, plain, field, etc.

TORUS: tube, circulate, journey, flow, system, etc.

SETTING UP the pairs.

As mentioned above, regarding my interpretation, I chose to
place a sphere onto a pyramid where gravity will cause it to roll off. This is
the first stage in bringing the armature into the sentence. Find words that
fulfill the attributes of the prims you will use (I gave a couple examples in
the paragraph above). You will be marrying your appropriate attributes to the
original words of the sentence you are translating. Let’s look at it again:

1.The sim crashed when the count exceeded 45
avatar visitors.

I’m going to choose the SIM and the VISITORS as my key words
of the sentence. I could just as easily have chosen CRASH and COUNT, so it is
highly subjective with how you feel on any given day. Today, I gravitate to the
sim and visitors, so I’ll demonstrate that version. Now that I have my
vocabulary pair selected, I must match them with the attribute vocabulary I
wish to assign from their armature prims. SIM is paired with the first prim
which is the pyramid. VISITORS is paired with the second prim, which is the
sphere that will roll off. My choice for SIM’s partner might be “field” because
a sim is a span of land, and for VISITOR, I might choose “turn” because the
sphere is readying itself to fall.

So far, this will give us something to work with: The sim +
field crashed when the count exceeded 45 avatar visitors + turn.

That’s making progress. Now let’s position them.

POSITION.

There are only two positions. Horizontal (in a line), and
vertical (stacked). I intend to use verticality to show that the sphere is
instable on the pyramid’s tip. Grammatically speaking, this is demonstrated in
a practical manner. To make something vertical, you add vocabulary that will
indicate an upward or downward concept. To make something horizontal, you think
in terms of lining up. Here are a few examples:

HORIZONTAL: along, line up, lean against, propel, forward,
etc.

VERTICAL: atop, over, balance, up, climb, stack, topple,
etc.

Being that our sample is vertical, I’ll insert “topple”. Position
needs to match both the dynamics of the armature prims, as well as the original
sentence vocabulary.

NOTE: The default position is horizontal. If you do not
insert any qualifier into a sentence, it will be understood as being
horizontal.

COMPOSITION

The last step is fitting the armature prims with the
original English sentence in a way that preserves the original sentence, but
with an armature inserted. The grammar should also be as close to conventional
English as possible. You may wish the sentence to signal itself with just
enough quirk so that the listener or reader is aware they are presently facing
an armature.

There is more than one way you can assemble the parts, but
here’s what I composed:

1.The sim crashed when the count exceeded 45
avatar visitors.

Now I’ll support the original English
sentence with the new armature: (+ field, topple, turn). This gives:

“The sim field crashed when the toppled count exceeded the
turn of 45 avatar visitors”.

Here's another example sentence:

2. The birds are flying high in the sky.

I'm choosing two tori and aligning them horizontally to represent a flock of birds in the sky. The torus gives a sense of movement in the context of a path, such as the birds' flight could be described. Since I am doubling up the tori, I only need to refer to it once as described in the economic rule I mentioned earlier. Because a horizontal format is chosen for this sentence, I also can choose to dismiss position, since it is automatically understood by the rule of default: If no position is added to the armature, then it is horizontal by default. So this sentence is really easy to compose. Which word, then, stands out most prominently? This is a sentence about birds, so we already know that. And the word sky is almost unnecessary, because we can assume that's where birds fly naturally. So the most prominent word here, in my opinion, is 'high'. This is in contrast to birds that fly low, a more common sight in my neighborhood. My very simple armature then is condensed into one torus that is affixed to the adjective 'high'. I assigned the circulatory attribute of 'orbit' from the torus. Adding the armature into the original English sentence now yields:

"The birds are flying orbit high in the sky".

Thank you for reading. I hope you have a slice of a
fun journeystacked with this!

“A Rusted Development”, an exhibit curated by Rowan Derryth
is now open to the public until the end of June, 2012. Rowan had approached me
two months ago with an invitation that knocked my socks off. She had a vision
for a full sim exhibit for which she wanted me to build the whole city, into
which a dozen other artists would populate the spaces with their masterworks. In
her own words: “I envisioned an installation where there exists a main build –a
‘development’ – that has fallen into ruin. It is subsequently rescued and
repopulated by a selection of artists whose work loosely embraces similar
themes.” For this, I needed a story, and wrote a brief history for the Rusted
Development which is contained in the catalog which you will be able to read
online by clicking here.

Beautifully crafted film by Chic Aeon about "A Rusted Development"

When Rowan first contacted me about her plans, and started
mentioning names of well-known and extremely talented artists who she planned
to invite to the project (and in fact she did achieve that goal), the
realization hit me that I was entering a realm of collaboration for which I had
no previous experience, like walking into a fairy tale, and so prepared myself
for this most exceptional ride. I built the city over a month’s time, but the
magic which is essential in every fairy tale, didn’t start to flicker until the
first artists arrived on the scene, rezzing their imaginations into the rusted
shell. As the city planner, I stood back to observe this transformation in
amazement. Everyone knew what to do, and Rowan herself kept on top of things,
working with all of us when she had suggestions, or alterations to discuss. And
she is a most compassionate conductor, giving extraordinary freedom of
expressive rights to the participants.

Here are the names of the artists who made A Rusted Development
possible. I wrote their names on little pieces of paper, scrambled them up,
then stacked them up with eyes closed so the order of names below are totally
random:

Stephen Venkman

PJ Trenton

Rose Borchovski

Ziki Questi

Trill Zapatero

Bryn Oh

Scottius Polke

Eliza Weirwight

Artistide Despres

Claudia222 Jewell

Blue Tsuki

Please make sure to click for the catalog. Rowan Derryth and
PJ Trenton collaborated their excellent writing and photography skills to
produce a wonderful tour of the project for you.

Hope you enjoy the exhibit, it is multi leveled from sea to
sky within the dome that covers the city. It is a good idea to walk much of the
time, because some of the artists have triggers that initiate only when your
avatar approaches them.

ABOUT THE HEADER PHOTOGRAPH:

Yesterday, I received a very encouraging and congratulatory
IM from Kareena Panthar. She sent me the photo above as a gift, telling me how
much she appreciated the exhibit. I wanted very much to be able to share this
fine artistic interpretation of the sim with visitors to my blog. Kareena graciously
gave me permission to post it.

UPDATE:Larkworthy Antfarm contacted me with information about her new film "PANOPTICON" of which some scenes from A Rusted Development are included. Please watch this highly energetic film below:

UPDATE: NicoleX Moonwall has just made these 5 shorts which she filmed at the installation. They are very short, very very short, but a most interesting perspective Nicole chooses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stao-H8LFcw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_o4NmGMZ_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCC-7SngLMk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA9vbu9L3So

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-B-WwkoS-E

NicoleX has also made another 4 min film. This is quite an exotic ride into the virtual world, into a drawn world: